Will eliminate Assad if Syria didn’t stop Iran from using its territory, Israeli minister warns

In what could heighten the tensions Syria and West Asia further, Israel on Monday, May 7, threatened to "eliminate" Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad if he did not stop Iran from using his country's territory.

Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz told news portal Ynet that is Assad did not stop Iran from using his country's soul, they would get rid of him and topple his government.

Steinitz's remark came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel was prepared to even go to war if it was needed to stop Iran to embed its forces in Syria.

Israel considers Iran a threat to its security and has always vowed to stop Tehran from going nuclear and set up a permanent influence in Syria, where it is backing Assad along with Russia.

Israel has also been a strong critic of the nuclear deal which the US and other major powers made with Iran in 2015 to curb its nuclear ambitions. Recently, Netanyahu made a presentation of slides claiming how Iran was secretly adding to its nuclear arsenal by violating the deal and praised Israel's intelligence Mossad for reportedly barging into an Iranian warehouse and transferred documents related to its nuclear programme to Israel overnight. Details of the process were, however, not revealed.